New York Times reports on “private messages”

There was a cute story in the New York Times today about young journalists on the 2012 campaign trail.

One paragraph in the story stood out for me.

Some reporters have even found their personal e-mails leaked and used against them. David Weigel, now a columnist for Slate, was pressured into leaving his job at The Washington Post last year after he attacked conservatives in private messages that found their way to a right-leaning Web site, The Daily Caller.

The Ostensibly Right-Leaning Right Now

Private messages? Hardly. Weigel’s comments were made on a list-serve, Journolist, that claimed 400 members. And the list was left-leaning, but that did not make it into the story, while The Daily Caller is the “right-leaning Web site.” Ditto the fact that Weigel lost his job because his comments bashed the right even though he was writing the “Right Now” blog for the Post.

What did Weigel’s “private mesages” say? Apparently their content was not important enough to rate mention in the piece. You can read some of his choice quotes here. He wrote to 400 people that Matt Drudge should set himself on fire and referred to Ron Paul and the Tea Party as the “Paultard” party. If you like F-words, look here.

The Weigel episode will be a topic for debate in journalism because it can be looked at from many angles. This was my take at the time. In the meantime, I think the New York Times’ short version of the controversy was quite lopsided.

After running so many Wikileaks revelations, The New York Times has left many readers wondering what the paper considers to be private. Now, you know.